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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953000">The Glass</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObtuseOctopus/pseuds/ObtuseOctopus'>ObtuseOctopus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Human, Bank Robbery, F/F, Gang Violence, Gangs, Gangsters, Gen, Partners in Crime, Robbery, Supernatural Elements</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:33:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObtuseOctopus/pseuds/ObtuseOctopus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If you haven’t heard of them, they’re one of the many gangs that run rampant in the seaside cities, causing terror and chaos wherever they roam, fighting for territory against other gangs. They entice members to join with promises of protection, food, water, shelter, and a place to feel accepted.</p><p>But now that Lapis and Pearl are a part of this organization, true colors become revealed. A leader who sold his soul, a thirst for power, and a drive to control the city, it’s not easy to leave once you’ve joined.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lapis Lazuli/Pearl (Steven Universe)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Glass</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>// Ah, yes another random writing piece Obtuse came up with and doesn’t know if she’ll continue or not lol </p><p>There’s no CW or TW anything like that in this save for some drugs/smoking activity</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Art is an expression as most would say; it’s a way that people can convey their emotions, their thoughts, their feelings. It can be displayed in ways of twisted disparity or exhilarating excitement, it could be used to get across an inspiring message of the artist or to implement blindness of the sheep when the flock had to be heeded a certain direction. Let it be actual drawing, painting, or even sculpting and building; creation of a new object was what came of art, and with art came ideas to spark revolutions should the idea reign mighty.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But when ideas became little, blocked by the lack of inspiration and or a drive to create, it was hard to express anything within art. Nothing came upon the paper, nothing was dipped into a paint palette, all that there was dragged on the suspense of silence, a static among the mind of the creator who couldn’t find any spark to ignite. There was no creation to take pride in, no art to prosper. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lapis had been awake nearly all night now; stuck on the stupid piece of paper still blank in front of her. She had no ideas, nowhere to begin, and even when she did start on a doodle, she eventually got tired of it and crumpled it up to toss aside in a frustrated wreck. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She felt like a total Opheliac; disillusioned, confused, and failing to capture the image she sought for on a loop of ribbon and thread. Her own mind was becoming its own enemy, and there was no Hamlet to blame for her descent into insanity, unless she could tear apart her brain to shreds to fully unearth the culprit and try to find the crime lord. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A heavy sigh escaped her frame, dissolving into dissatisfaction as she returned to blankly staring down at her paper. Lapis couldn’t find the spark she was looking for. She had sight of it, but then lost it in the labyrinth long ago back when the Minotaur had bellowed her name. She had not made anything new for a long time now; and she could blame herself, she could blame others, she could blame outside forces around her outside of her but a part of her. Though in the end? Her lack of creativity was to be blamed upon her own unattainable riches, her happily ever after destroyed by a dragon whose claws were sharpened the moment its eye caught sight of the birth of fire. Once the village had been burned, the children crying out to repent, their local citizens and neighbors crying with tear-stained faces, all that remained was the land scorched and torn. There was no fertile land to grow upon. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lapis finally stopped staring at the paper on the table in front of her, her eyes casting a sideways glance at the time on the wall. It would be sunrise soon in just an hour or less. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her hand shifted, gripping tight into a fist. She couldn’t conjure up the seed to plant a flower with, and she lacked the fertilizer of ideas to grow it warmly into a beautiful creation. Her lips were dry, and her hair was slicked with grease that longed to be washed away. Like a dog who had been found abandoned and starving on the street, she was struggling to breathe. Her lungs were filling up with the prejudice of dead determination. Assignments were annoying, even draining for her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was it even worth it to keep up in school when she knew that she would forever be behind, never scoring among top students and instead lounging at the bottom of the sludge in self pity?</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Addictions started small, like the beginning of a ripple- the touch of a finger tip against water. As the ripple grew bigger in the water, so did the strive to return to the same item over and over again for dependence. When ripples became too big to overcome, that was the prime core of heavy addiction. The water ripples could risk becoming a tsunami if its abuser didn’t find a healthier alternative in time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For Lapis, in particular, her addiction was like drowning. It was bleak, it was dark and suffocating, but the water was a cold blanket washing over old wounds. Though the pain didn’t heal, the hurting did temporarily subside every time a cigar was raised to her lips and tobacco spiraled through her system. The past years had been disastrous, maybe even destructive if she hadn’t found her wrath of an outlet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Although Lion High did have a set of strict rules that included no smoking on campus, the rules mattered as little as time did to Lapis. Rules were nothing but words to defy, a challenge to break. Whenever the time was right, the bluenette always looked for ways to evade the system in favor of her own benefit. Her excuse? Trying to cope with a very rough past and an unstable childhood that now haunted her head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By the time the bell had rung for the last class of the day to begin, Lapis already was hiding out in a far corner of the campus. Being a senior did have some perks, she could skip a class or two without trouble. Given that kind of privilege, it definitely meant opportunity to sneak a blunt or two in order to keep herself sane. After scrounging through the pockets of her jeanjacket, she pulled out a lighter and a half-empty pack of cigarettes. Immediately did she begin trying to flick the lighter one once she had plucked out a cigarette and held in between her lips, attempting to light the end of the cigar to relish in a moment’s peace. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wasn’t expecting anybody to be in the proximity, given that usually everyone was in class at times like these, but she did tense upon hearing what sounded like… footsteps? Panicking that it could be a school counselor or a teacher, Lapis began to hurriedly put away her items, being uncoordinated and unorganized in the process.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello? Is anybody there?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that was how she had met her. Pearl was a very straight A, on top of schoolwork and always voted into student offices. Her reputation was famously positive among everybody. She was miss goody two-shoes, got whatever she wanted on a silver platter topped with gold napkins. It was an unusual encounter- of course Pearl scolded her for smoking on campus, but that encounter would soon blossom and sprout into something chaotic.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Lapis endured until Christmas break. She was finally snapping, collapsing under the weight of all the pressure. Her grades suffered just as much as her struggle to keep her head up above water in swim class nowadays. But people like Pearl? They were gifted, or were born from more successful roots as some said. They had the advantage, and they sure wallowed in it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lapis considered dropping out, but if she came home empty handed without a diploma, her father would not be pleased. She had to get out of the trench before the water spilled in. So, she did her best to not succumb to the madness of depression and edging self hate. Instead, she requested for some tutoring lessons over break, and who she got didn’t surprise her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You need to stop smoking those, that’s a very low quality brand,” Pearl said as she met with Lapis just outside campus. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How do you know? Do you smoke?” Lapis challenged, taking her cigarette out of her mouth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... No. I don’t.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lapis felt like Pearl was lying. And her suspicion proved to be true, not even a week later when Lapis decided to head out earlier than usual to meet with her tutor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>smoke,” Lapis gasped, awed at the sight. She ran up, startling Pearl, who poorly hid her action.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Smoking destroys your lungs, and can cause early death!” Pearl defended herself awfully, “I certainly do not smoke!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I saw you.” Lapis stood in front of the other student, refusing to drop the topic. “You were smoking, Pearl. And that makes you a hypocrite.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“... Alright. So, I smoke. And is that truly my fault?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It is, if you’re getting mad at me for it but then doing this,” Lapis scoffed. “Where do you even get that sort of brand? I’ve never seen that one.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s complicated.” Pearl replied. “I cannot tell you, even if I could.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” Lapis pressed. “It’s just some cigarettes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>more </span>
  </em>
  <span>than just some cigarettes,” Pearl corrected. “It isn’t any of your concern.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I have all the time in the world and nothing to lose. What’s so bad about a few cigarettes?” Lapis held her ground. “I heard rumors that you were leaving after this month. Did you graduate early? Are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>too good </span>
  </em>
  <span>to be with lowlifes? Is your cigarette brand so amazing that you can’t share it with others?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You don’t want to get involved.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And if I do?” Lapis raised a brow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I promise, you don’t want to.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Try me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pearl slowly shook her head. “Your stubbornness is going to get you into trouble.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You might as well tell me now before I report your behavior to the principal,” Lapis warned. “He lets me go off easy since I’m already an established troublemaker. I can’t say the same for you though.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pearl sighed. “You’ll regret it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Again. Try. Me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pearl reluctantly caved in. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” She hesitated before she continued, “If you really want to know- if you truly want to get involved and risk your own skin, you can meet me by the coffee shop in town. Eleven PM, sharp.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lapis smiled. “Deal.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So thus began the life of recalcitrant, rebellious minds allied together in a future grim and lush with perverse escapism. Pearl didn’t graduate early, and she sure didn’t plan on leaving for her own future. She left because of a much darker reason, one driven by natural teenage hunger for an easier and livelier environment. Lapis was smitten the same way as she, both agreeing to run off together in the next chapter of life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I never took you as someone who would do… this,” Lapis whispered, following Pearl into unfamiliar grounds far away from the school late at night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The truth is, I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember,” Pearl said. “They gave me a home when I didn’t have one, and they also gave me protection and food when I needed it. When my mother blamed me for the crippling of my younger sister in a hit and run six years ago, they gave me somewhere to escape her yelling and blaming.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So why school? Why be so perfect and so untouchable there? Why not stay here entirely in the first place?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because I thought I had a chance to escape this,” Pearl frowned. “Although, the truth is, once you’re in the Glass…  you </span>
  <em>
    <span>cannot</span>
  </em>
  <span> leave the Glass.”</span>
</p>
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